The one blog to rule them all...

[Traino]

And in its internet accountability bind him!

Ok so starting today I'm going to be logging my workout/food intake everyday as well as take measurements every month and post them here. I'll also shorten it a little with key words and stuff and junk. I currently weight over 200kg (440 pounds!) and the scales available to me don't go that high. So I may include weight in future but for now the log is as it is.

How much is a "Round"?: For me a round is one lap around the gym on each machine I'm currently working on. For weights its sets of 15 reps on as much weight as I can handle. For the round with the boxing bag its 30 punches in 3 rounds per set. Currently I'm doing 5 sets of arm weights 1 set of leg weights and 1 set on the bag per round. (Will update this when it changes around every 2 months)

Measurements Day1:
Arms: 24''
Legs: 36''
Belly: My tape measure doesn't go far enough! >< that's a goal I guess?

Exercise:

10 mins on the bike
3 gym rounds

Food intake:

4 Wheatmeal sandwich size toast (peanut butter) 800 cal, 30 pro.
Foot long roast beef sub (double meat/wheat bread) 1238 cal, 82.4 pro.
Handful of lightly salted peanuts (around 60g) 332ish cal, 13.4 pro.
2 Burgers (baked) 2 small potatoes (Also baked) 650ish cal, 48 pro.

Total: = 3020ish
Protein: = 173.8ish

Summary: WoW are you serious! I thought my 1st log would be alright . I had no idea that toast had that many calories or the peanuts or the burgers for that matter! Goes to show that I need to look into foods before I consider deviating from my preset diet.

Also on a side note I didn't realize in changing from a normal sub to a under 6 grams of fat sub at subway means they stop counting the cheese on the nutritional form... crafty buggers! >.> I may just not get it. Between the jalapenos and sweet chilli sauce I dont taste it anyway...

Disappointing 1st log overall but I'll get better! and I'm seeing why this is a good idea already. Also does anyone have a good way or website for finding the calorie value of foods easier? It can be a pain finding it if its not listed on the packet.

[d_tox]

please read through the first 1/2 of this article to gain an understanding on how carbohydrates play a HUGE role in keeping your body's metabolism in what is called "fat storage" mode.

LOWER YOUR CARBOHYDRATES AND LOWER YOUR INSULIN LEVELS

ig your diet is top heavy in carbos (from simple sugars to heavy starches like corn & potatoes) then you will continue to maintain & possibly gain.
make your diet TOP heavy in protein and vegetables high in fiber for best results. a little carb content is fine (and fresh veggies high in fiber are carbohydrates but since the carbs are fibrous in form, most of it passes through your system and not stored as fat)

i think the material in that link is keyto understanding what you need to adjust.

[Rue]

Welcome aboard. I'd find a little calorie book and use that. You can use the internet too...but I find it awkard for 'learning' calories from scratch. It doesn't really take too long to 'memorize' caloric amounts for the foods you eat regularly.

Basically, I'd try to cut back carbs - for you - to 4 servings a day. So that would be 2 slices of bread, one portion of potato and one serving of pasta for example. Measure out your portion sizes too...until you have an idea of how much it is (it's not very much, so be prepared). You can always have more than one portion of any food...but you need to know what one is to be able to orchestrate your daily intake.

The rest of your food should be veggies, fruits and protein.

Protein...lean meat meat, whole eggs, etc. are good, easy choices.

[Vonderbach]

Also remember, proteins help you to feel full (at least in my experience) as opposed to carbs which provide energy and dissipate quickly. A balance of both will do nicely.

And peanuts/peanut butter is really high in calories compared to the nutritional benefit. A few peanuts (almonds are great) is good, but going heavy on those is going to wreck you quickly.

Welcome aboard!

[Miranda]

Cool, a fellow Tolkien Geek! Welcome!

Okay, I'm the queen of carbs, and even I have to agree with everyone else, you probably have too many carbs on your eating log. I would ditch the bread at breakfast and go for a vegetable omelette and some fresh fruit. Or, if you must go for carbs, at least reach for something really high in fiber like oatmeal or limit yourself to one piece of toast. I also don't see many vegies. I would really up your vegetable intake. As in at least half your plate being vegetables, 1/4 protein, and 1/4 high quality carb (sweet potato, beans, whole wheat pasta).

Don't beat yourself up about your initial calorie count. Your are changing habits that have been ingrained for years and years. This takes time. It also takes time to develop an eating plan that you can live with! (((Traino)))

The cool thing is, that at 440 lbs, you will very likely still see weight loss at 2,500 cals a day. The trick is to make all of those calories good ones! Maybe OD can do a breakdown for you.

Welcome!

[Traino]

Ty for all the reply's guys ^^

That 1st log is an example of what happens when I go fast and heavy with my pre set meal plan. Normally I have rolled oats for breakfast and I'm going to be working on making some salads for dinner and once I get my hands on some protein shake I'll likely lay off on the nuts and have veg as my afternoon snack. Hopefully that should round out my meal and shoot down the carbs a bit.Would the oats + sub be too much you think? There is a fair bit of bread in the sub but I do make sure to get the wheat bread so its not entirely awful.

(D tox) That's an interesting read and something I definitely need to watch out for. As I can see in this log left to my own devices ill load up on carbs. TY for the link.

(Rue) I Think oats/sub busts the 4 servings on their own D:. I may have to look into swapping around breakfast as I'm very partial to my sub.

(vonderbach) I was very surprised to find out my handful of peanuts were so high in calories actually. I was trying to get some extra protein to keep me going until I get my shakes. Good to know for future! I'm not convinced I need extra energy at all at the moment I find myself pumped for another workout at like 10pm at night!

(Miranda) Hello again! Fruit would be a nice change from having oats every morning (which is what prompted the toast fiasco) but my gym instructor told me that he mixes his morning protein shake with his oats for breakfast and it tastes awesome and is a great start since I work out in the morning. I haven't tried it so I dont know if this concoction will be any good but it sounds good in theory!

Its nice to know at least until I trim down a bit that there is some learning leeway. My main terrible past habit was drinking tonnes of coke/fizzy type drinks. Which thankfully Ive mostly stopped (I only have a small drink of coke zero sometimes with lunch). Now if only I could convince my brother to stop.

[Traino]

Exercise:
3 Hours screwing around at the pool kinda counts right? (not really)

Food intake:

Bowl of Oats (with a lillll bit of sugar on top!) 300ish cal, 6.4 pro.
Foot long roast beef sub (double meat/wheat bread) 1238 cal, 82.4 pro.
Handful of lightly salted peanuts (around 90g) 498ish cal, 20.1 pro.


Total: = 2036ish
Protein: = 108.9ish

Summary: So my brother managed to convince me that since we got our new swimming trunks today we should make today our one rest day for this week. So we can get used to the water as nither of us have gone swimming in the better part of 3 years. So today my exercise was minimal we just spent most of the day screwing around in the pool and its back to the gym tomorrow... With varying degrees of sunburn !

On the eating side everything went to plan other than me not having any meat or base salad ingredients in the house atm for dinner. I needa do some shopping tomorrow and get some stuff.

Also on a side note loud kids are loud. :/ I had my 1st "old man" moment today when these schools of kids kept coming into the pool and being very very loud! Also snack bar at the pool needs to stop looking so good.

[Traino]

I found myself craving my old KFC meal I used to have (and have manged to avoid for well over a month) and decided to look up the nutritional info... OMFG I mean I knew it was bad but yikes! Its over 3000 calories! :x now I realize how I got to where I am. Just thought id share and leave this here as a reminder for myself.

[Quietus]

Looks like you're heading in the right direction, protein shakes & oats are some of the best things you can eat, i've had both daily for the last 2 years and they helped me make my progress.

Some tips to get where you're going faster: get some splenda or similar artificial sweetener and use it in place of sugar anywhere you would've used sugar including cooking applications, saves a lot of calories. If you're going to drink soda only make it the 0 calorie kind, as you know drinking calories is one of the biggest dieting sabotages.

Nuts are kind of a tricky thing, they're good for you but they're also very easy to over-eat because they're calorie dense foods (i.e., high in calorie for their size), if you try to fill up on nuts you'll have eaten way more calories than you intended to by the time you're full.

Nutrition-wise, you might have an easier go of it by reducing the carb intake a little and getting some vegetables in, because if you find some you enjoy you can eat boat-loads of them for minimal calories. Personally I like to steam broccoli and douse it in buffalo wing sauce.. tasty and very low calorie.

[Traino]

Looks like you're heading in the right direction, protein shakes & oats are some of the best things you can eat, i've had both daily for the last 2 years and they helped me make my progress.

Some tips to get where you're going faster: get some splenda or similar artificial sweetener and use it in place of sugar anywhere you would've used sugar including cooking applications, saves a lot of calories. If you're going to drink soda only make it the 0 calorie kind, as you know drinking calories is one of the biggest dieting sabotages.

Nuts are kind of a tricky thing, they're good for you but they're also very easy to over-eat because they're calorie dense foods (i.e., high in calorie for their size), if you try to fill up on nuts you'll have eaten way more calories than you intended to by the time you're full.

Ty for the support/advice And congrats on your progress! Hopefully it works as well for me too!.

I'd considered splenda but the only thing I put sugar on/in is my oats and I'm gonna give the protein shake/oats for breakfast idea as it really appeals to me since I work out in the mornings atm. Have you ever tried that? I'm somewhat skeptical sounds too good to be true.

Soda Is a hugeeeeeeeeee vice for me. I don't find myself so much craving soda at home like I used to (previously I would drink a 1.5L bottle a day). But I often get Coke zero (0 cal kind) with my lunch and I know while its low calories its not terribly good for me and I know I'm going to have to cut it out one day... probably sooner rather than later!

[Vonderbach]

There was a study a while back that concluded that diet soda actually made you more hungry. For this reason alone, soda may be actually hurting you. Nevermind the chemcial impact.

I'm also fighting against diet soda. On one hand, I love it because the carbonation makes me feel full, but I also know all the bad things about it, which is a major mental hurdle.

I feel your pain.

[Rue]

I've done a lot of reading, and can't find anything to substantiate the claim that diet soda is a problem. Studies are often skewed and a lot of the information is anecdotal.

But like anything else...moderation is the key. If the diet soda helps - and for me it wards off cravings for sweets - because it IS my sweet - go for it.

But I have my one (most days) diet soda as dessert after dinner. Sometimes I have one for lunch, but maybe only once every 2 weeks(thinking back on it).

[Traino]

Owwwwwwww! Sunburn burrrrrrrrrns!... My gym instructor thinks its best to let to settle before going back to the lifting. So now I get to feel lazy and burnying (?). Blah not a good start for today...

As for the soda thing its coke zero specifically I read an article on. They use some kind of burnt food substance to help flavor it. Which is apparently bad If you drink too much of it. I'm not too worried though I only have it once a day at the most so I'm good.

[Miranda]

Oh, those cravings are hard to fight, aren't they? I feel your pain but congrats for fighting the urge! It helps that now restaurants are legally required to post calorie amounts next to the foods. What an eye opener that was!

Btw, playing around in the pool is totally a workout! Not all exercise has to be regimented. Just getting out and moving and having a great time is what it's all about!

Keep up the great work, and get yourself to the store for green stuff! (No, chocolate mint ice cream does not fall into the "green stuff" category! )

[Traino]

Exercise:
Basically none I spent most of today trying very hard to not move my sun burnt arms.

Food intake:

Eggs on toast (4 slice 4 eggs) 516ish cal, 32 pro.
2 carrots 80ish cal, 1.2 pro
Foot long roast beef sub (double meat/wheat bread) 1238 cal, 82.4 pro.


Total: = 1834ish
Protein: = 115.6ish

Summary: So this morning I woke up looking like Dr Zoidberg covered in some nasty nasty sunburn from swimming yesterday. So I called up my gym instructor and told him about it he suggested taking a day or two rest to let it heal up.

So it was a lazy day for me and its funny how when your doing nothing for a day temptation sets in! But I resisted!

[hollee]

Well done on resisting temptations. Yes it is when we have less to occupy us that we struggle with temptation.

[Traino]

Well done on resisting temptations. Yes it is when we have less to occupy us that we struggle with temptation.

I was like soooo close to ordering a pizza since I didn't have anything in the house that wasn't terrible but my old friend subway bailed me out! I'm definitely going shopping tomorrow morning.

[hollee]

Last night I was going to order Chinese and didn't, so I was proud of myself. Silly thing to be proud off but so be it.

[Rue]

I'm proud of myself when I don't cave. Makes me wonder why I cave as often as I do...since I really don't feel good about it...:hmm:

[Traino]

Exercise:
Unless you count shopping D: none... But my sunburn is feeling much better tonight. Back to the gym tomorrow! woot!

Food intake:

Bowl of Oats (with a lillll bit of sugar on top!) 300ish cal, 6.4 pro.
Eggs on toast (4 slice 4 eggs) 516ish cal, 32 pro.
Handful of lightly salted peanuts (around 60g) 332ish cal, 13.4 pro.
2 bits of Schnitzel (fried! ) 624 cal, 91 pro.
1 cup mash potato with mix veg 316 cal, 10.6 pro.
1 slice pavlova 2 scoops ice cream 504 cal, 7.5 pro.

Total: = 2592ish
Protein: = 160ish

Summary: Why did I have those peanuts!!!! D: I knew I was going to have a potentially big meal at my dads tonight arggggh... So my brother called me up this morning and told me he wanted to cook dinner for me and my father tonight at my dads place.

Hes 28 and until a little while ago didn't know how to boil a potato... So hes enjoying his new found skills . So I go over to my dad's place expecting a relaxing afternoon... and my brother took two steps into the kitchen and then came and got me (Ive worked/studied as a chef so I'm the go too guy on cooking). But since it was important to him I ate what was there yummy as it was I knew I'd feel the guilty writing this blog later!

But being honest I have no real excuse for dessert... I could have skipped it extra workout tomorrow! This will not do! dessert you are a fickle mistress Why are you so tasty???